On writing and using confessions

A slim volume containing confessions of faith recently took me back to the origins of confession-writing activity in the Anabaptist tradition. The book – Confessions of Faith in the Anabaptist Tradition 1527–1660 (edited by Karl Koop, Pandora, 2006) – also provoked some reflections on Mennonite Brethren writing and use of confessions in the past few years.

Let me begin these reflections with a story Paraguayan MB leader Alfred Neufeld tells about German Mennonites in the late 19th century.

From the start, Mennonites had felt an uneasy and ambivalent relationship with society and state. Strictly biblical, they had consistently taught members to respect and pray for government leaders as servants of God. Vigorously nonconformist, they had rejected involvement with government, eschewing the use of coercion or violence.

By the final years of the 19th century, German Mennonites had enjoyed almost three centuries of peaceful prosperity in Prussia. Since the German Empire had been established in 1871, they had been living under the benevolent rule of Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor. Bismarck was a converted Christian, a Lutheran Pietist. His wife, Johanna, was even more expressive of her faith. Her devotion inspired the faith of German Mennonites.

As a new century loomed, German Mennonites sensed the need to adopt a modern confession of faith. One sticking point involved the relationship with the state and the question of nonresistance. Tradition was clear. Anabaptists were nonconformists. But confessions are practical theological documents and address contemporary needs. Surely the German state, dominated as it was by the faithful chancellor and his pious wife, was to be embraced rather than avoided. On the strength of this trust, the last German confession of the 19th century avoided mention of separation from the state and peacemaking nonresistance.

And the rest, as they say, is history. In the First World War, Mennonites served in the German army as both medics and combatants. A decade after that war, Hitler was swept into office. Was there a Mennonite protest? No. Mennonites could no longer be distinguished politically from other Germans. Compromise borne of faith in the pious German chancellor gave rise to conformity with the Third Reich. Silence had given way to acquiescence.

This story illustrates two critical insights. First, it demonstrates the crucial role confessions can play in the life of the church. Second, it reveals uncanny similarities with the North American Mennonite Brethren church today, at the beginning of the 21st century.

Seven years

North American MBs have been using their most recent Confession of Faith for more than seven years. Two significant events in the confessional life of the church have transpired since 1999.

One, Canadian and U.S. MBs have formed separate denominations with distinct Boards of Faith and Life. Although no confessional revisions have been proposed in the interim, Canadians have been active in studying baptism and in revising the position on women in pastoral leadership.

Two, the International Committee of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB) has adopted an international confession, which is authoritative for North Americans as well as the other 18 national conferences.

The writing process of the ICOMB confession illustrates the contextual nature of such documents. While North Americans were celebrating their final convention as the General Conference in Abbotsford in 2001, the ICOMB confession task force was meeting to draft the new document. The first statement at the table came from Takashi Manabe of Japan. “Asians and Africans don’t think like North Americans,” he said. “We do theology in stories – not propositions.” Appropriately, the ICOMB confession combines the biblical story with five statements about the church.

Five issues

Editor Karl Koop’s introduction to Confessions of Faith in the Anabaptist Tradition 1527–1660 identifies five issues that illuminate our recent confession-writing activity.

One, Koop reminds us of the influence of Harold S. Bender’s “Anabaptist Vision.” Bender helped inspire a renaissance in contemporary Anabaptist understanding by identifying the essence of Christianity as discipleship (following Jesus), church as community, and the ethic of love and nonresistance.

Two, Koop reminds us that Anabaptists have been active writers of “confessional statements as a way of bolstering internal cohesion and preserving theological distinctives.” Confessions, he notes, not only have the power to unite but also the potential to divide, written as they are in the context of pluralistic worldviews.

Three, Koop points out that confessional statements have authority only to the extent that they satisfy twin conditions: congregational assent and submission to the higher authority of Scripture. Many of the 14 confessions translated and published in Koop’s volume list supportive Scripture references (as do the recent MB confessions) but also incorporate scriptural quotations within the body of the document.

Four, Koop draws attention to the provisional quality of Christian theology; language and even doctrinal perspective changes over time. Christian theological tradition is dynamic and developing.

Five, confessions are an important, but not the definitive, genre of literature for expressing Anabaptist confession. Catechisms, liturgy, commentaries, and curriculum along with hymns and worship songs express and influence our theology. A significant part of the 2001 Mennonite Brethren confession is the liturgical version, for which we are indebted to Randy Klassen.

The fifth item signals a genre that has often been forced underground by the church – songwriting. In other traditions, and in earlier generations of ours, theologians have been the primary producers of lyrics. An MB hymnbook was published in the same year our confession was revised, but contemporary musicians often serve the church without the benefit of theological nurture. I look with hope to the future, however, because there is growing awareness of the importance of contemporary worship music as a theological vehicle. Traditional theologians must not oppose it but foster the composition of new psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Lynn Jost is academic dean and associate professor of Old Testament at MB Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Cal. He chaired the committee that revised the MB Confession of Faith, which was adopted by North American MBs in 1999. This Confession, as well as ICOMB’s, is available online at mbconf.ca.